Author: Tatjana Meschede
Year of DDRG Award: 2003
Grantee University: University of Massachusetts Boston
Dissertation Title: Bridges and Barriers to Housing for Homeless Street Dwellers: The Impact of Health and Substance Abuse Services on Housing Attainment
Current Employment: Research Director, Institute on Assets and Social Policy; and Lecturer in the Masters in Public Policy Program, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University; Faculty Master in Public Affairs Program, John McCormack Graduate School o
Research Subject Areas: Assets and Poverty, Economic Security, Homelessness
Biography:
Dr. Meschede currently directs the MacArthur Foundation-funded project "Family Financial Well-Being in the 21st Century: Strategic Positioning of Data Tools for Policy Impact," leading Brandeis University's Institute on Assets and Social Policy's (IASP's) work on creating economic security indicators and asset poverty indexes for different segments of the U.S. population. Dr. Meschede has more than 15 years of quantitative and qualitative research experience applying a range of methodological approaches (for example survey research, experimental design, qualitative, interviewing) with low-income populations, including homelessness and housing, food insecurity and nutrition, the technology divide, access to the labor market for persons with employment barriers, and access to higher education for youth with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Meschede is author of numerous publications and reports. Her most recent IASP publications include Living Longer on Less: The New Economic (In)Security of Seniors; Enhancing Social Security for Low-Income Workers: Coordinating an Enhanced Minimum Benefit with Safety Net Provisions for Seniors; From Middle to Shaky Grounds: The Economic Decline of America's Middle Class, 2000-2006.
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